To add a Euro flair to the evening, Obama could drape tri-color flags
on a few empty seats to commemorate the 42 medical staff, patients, and
others slain at a last Oct. 3 when
an American AC-130 gunship blasted a French Médecins Sans
Frontières‎ hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. The U.S. military revised
its story several times but admitted in November that the carnage was
the result of “avoidable … human error.” Regrettably, that bureaucratic
phrase lacks the power to resurrect victims.

No plans were announced to designate a seat for Brian Terry,
the U.S. Border Patrol agent killed in 2010. Guns found at the scene of
Terry’s killing were linked to the Fast and Furious gunwalking
operation masterminded by the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
(ATF) agency. At least 150 Mexicans
were also killed by guns illegally sent south of the border with ATF
approval. The House of Representatives voted to hold then-attorney
general Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to disclose Fast and Furious details, but Obama did not dwell on this topic in his State of the Union address.

On a more festive note, Obama could have saved seats for a wedding party. Twelve Yemenis who were celebrating nuptials on Dec. 12, 2013, would
not have been able to attend Obama’s speech because they were blown to
bits by a U.S. drone strike. The Yemeni government — which is heavily
bankrolled by the U.S. government — paid more than a million dollars compensation to the survivors of innocent civilians killed and wounded in the attack.

Four seats could have been left vacant for the Americans killed
in the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya — U.S. Ambassador Christopher
Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Tyrone
Woods and Glen Doherty. But any such recognition would rankle the
presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, who has worked tirelessly to
sweep those corpses under the rug. It would also be appropriate to
include a hat tip to the hundreds, likely thousands, of Libyans who have been killed in the civil war unleashed after the Obama administration bombed Libya to topple its ruler, Moammar Gadhafi.

Obama loves to salute promising young Americans but 16-year-old Abdulrahman Anwar al-Awlaki did not get a chance to attend. That Denver-born boy was killed in a U.S. drone strike on Oct. 14, 2011,
while he was in Yemen looking for his father (who was killed in a CIA
drone strike two weeks earlier). If that kid’s name had been Bob, he
might still be around to cheer Obama’s anti-gun crusade.

If the first lady sat alone among the other 28 seats the White House
receives in the first lady’s box, it wouldn’t make room to represent the
casualties of Obama administration policies at home and abroad.
Presidents have the prerogative to morally grandstand in State of the
Union addresses. But Obama’s righteous indignation would have more
credibility if his litany had fewer glaring omissions.

An earlier version of this piece appeared yesterday at USA Today.
Their headline was “First Lady’s box should be empty at State of the
Union speech.” I have been catching grief from enraged feminists – but
that was one double entendre that I had nothing to do with.

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Arthur C. Pillsbury early understood the problems facing his generation. His solution applied edge technologies, film and an expanded understanding of the living processes of the natural world, to awaken people to the need to respect the integrity of the natural world.

His work changed the world, but remains to be finished by those of us now living.